Oil is close to the largest annual increase in 7 years

30.12.2016

On Friday, the US crude oil prices rose slightly in pre-holiday trade, trying to recover losses after the US supplies showed an unexpected gain yesterday, while the hopes for a production cut in 2017 and a weaker dollar support the oil quotes.

As of 08:14 GMT, WTI crude for February delivery, traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rose in price by 22 cents, or 0.4%, to $ 53.99 a barrel, after falling 29 cents, or 0.5 % a day earlier.

On the ICE exchange in London, Brent crude for March delivery rose 29 cents, or 0.5%, to $ 57.14 a barrel, after losing 8 cents, or 0.14% in the previous session.

Earlier this month, Brent crude oil reached a 17-month high at $ 57.89 on optimism about the planned production cut by the world's largest oil producers.

A weaker US dollars also helps the oil prices. The USD Index, which tracks the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major rivals, was down by 0.18% to 102.48 (as of 9:44 GMT).

Oil prices may show the maximum annual percentage rise since 2009, thanks to an agreement between the OPEC and non-OPEC countries to cut oil production.

OPEC and other big producers such as Russia have announced production cuts by nearly 1.8 million barrels a day, starting from January 1, 2017, in an attempt to support the market.

At the same time, Kuwait's oil minister Essam Al-Marzouq said that the committee made from OPEC and non-OPEC members, which was created for market monitoring, may hold a meeting on 21-22 January to assess the early state of the deal compliance.

On Thursday, a Reuters poll showed that oil prices could rise to $ 60 per barrel by the end of 2017, but a further rise will be restrained by a strong dollar, the likely increase in oil production in the United States and the possible failure to comply with OPEC's deal.

Meanwhile, gasoline for February delivery added 0.23% to $ 1.6793 a gallon, while heating oil for February delivery rose 0.37% to $ 1.7263 per gallon.

Futures on the natural gas for February delivery fell 2.0 cents or 0.53% to $ 3.822 per million British thermal units. 

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